As trade lanes lengthen and grow in complexity with the spread of globalization and the continuous emergence of new goods, components and markets, it is increasingly important to track and record the position of such articles with an ever higher level of detail in both time and space.
The IBM® Secure Trade Lane is a global logistics information platform. It gives global supply chain stakeholders access to information on demand, allowing real-time access and response to physical cargo monitoring data as well as the related logistics transaction data. For the first time, shipments can be monitored from the manufacturer to the store, so related activities such as port operations can be optimized.
Shipping plays a key role in the global economy. Without shipping, intercontinental trade, the transport of raw materials, manufactured goods, and food would simply not be possible. The international shipping industry is responsible for the carriage of 90% of world trade. Every year, 50,000 merchant ships transport more than 6 billion tons of goods in some 20 million maritime containers.
In this age of just-in-time manufacturing and supply, containers are virtual warehouses that move goods from their origin to destination via an intricate set of processes that often involve more than ten different service providers, government representatives, or intermediaries. Market and customer pressures demand that the complex operations of these virtual warehouses be optimized and this has implications for both the public and private parties in the trade lane.
Governments are pressured to improve clearance speed and to reduce the cost and burden on trade to support global, integrated, just-in-time supply chain requirements. Moreover, security must be drastically improved in these times of increased terrorist threats and security breaches—currently only a mere 2-4% of the transported containers are physically inspected. These needs are driving changes in public policy that will have effects throughout the industry.
Compliance with new public laws and regulations as well as the demand from customers for greater performance in the supply chain—shorter global delivery times, reduced costs, and improved operational efficiencies—will confront all the public and private parties in the trade lane with new challenges in terms of security, reliability, liability, visibility, and efficiency of container shipments.
The IBM Secure Trade Lane is a comprehensive new global logistics information platform that addresses all the challenges mentioned above by providing unprecedented levels of supply chain efficiency and security. It gives global supply chain stakeholders access to information on demand, allowing real-time access and response to physical cargo monitoring data as well as the related logistics transaction data such as order information, invoices, financial data, bills of lading, manifests, etc.
The IBM Secure Trade Lane architecture may use an intelligent wireless monitoring device which is mounted on each container. Information provided by the wireless monitoring device is made available to the supply chain participants through a Shipment Information System. The latter coordinates the sharing of information among authorized parties using proved information technology techniques and tools.
The wireless monitoring device has two primary functions: (1) to create an audit trail of container movements and events from its point of origin to its destination; and (2) to make this information available to authorized entities, allowing them to perform risk analysis, to assess the container's security and integrity, and to optimize the efficiency of container shipments. The wireless monitoring device automatically collects information on container events, including physical location based on GPS, state of the container such as temperature, humidity, ambient light, acceleration, and door status. It can communicate with the backend over satellite communication, a cellular system (GSM/GPRS), or a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) based on ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 radio. A handheld device can also be used to communicate with the wireless monitoring device over a WPAN. The wireless monitoring device incorporates significant processing power, which enables it to analyze events and take appropriate actions. For example, opening of the door within a predefined geographic zone by an authorized person is an event that is logged; but opening of the door outside of the predefined zone or by an unauthorized person will trigger the sending of an alert to the backend server monitoring the status of the containers.
The wireless monitoring devices are connected wirelessly to a Logistics Service Provider (LSP) through a secure, fully integrated network that links to the SIS—an SOA-based (service-oriented architecture-based) distributed network enabling end-to-end data collection and reporting. Together they enable manufacturers, customers and any authorized member of the logistics network to view cargo integrity and location. Each participant owns and manages its own data through decentralized databases, ensuring full customer control over data access and privacy.
The IBM Secure Trade Lane solution offers services such as shipment monitoring services which enable end-to-end, real-time monitoring and visibility of any container, anywhere in the world. Data collected can be used to offer value-added services to other trading partners who seek to better manage on-time deliveries, to identify bottlenecks quickly, to take advantage of green-lane customs treatment and to realize additional supply chain efficiencies. Shipment information sharing services meanwhile allow trading parties within and across industries to exchange data more easily, helping them to better meet their security and efficiency objectives.
The tracking of articles for example in contexts such as described above can be particularly problematic at a point where the article changes status, for example when it is transferred between two vehicles, or when it is transferred from storage to a vehicle for transport. It is at such moments that a particularly high degree of tracking detail is desirable.
FIG. 1 shows a typical environment in which the status of an article may change. Specifically, FIG. 1 shows a quay 130 from which a container 150 is loaded onto the deck of a cargo vessel 100 by means of a crane 121. Other containers 101 are already disposed on the deck of the cargo vessel. The quay side is a first elevation above the level of the water 140 on which the cargo vessel 100 floats.
The list of containers loaded or unloaded between the loading quay and a vessel is not automatically created by an electronic system, and errors can appear. The error can be found a long time after the port operations. This has major inconveniences such as entailing a break in the supply chain operations. Furthermore, power management of a tracking device may not be performed on ocean routes: It is desirable to deactivate an electronic tracking devices (tracking device) mounted on commercial containers. The main challenge for those devices is the power/energy management due to lack of external power supply. The major contributor to energy consumption is due to the GPS detection and communications over the air. When on board of a vessel, the tracking device is not able to detect GPS or communicate and thus those functions must be turned off to save energy and turn on back when the container is unloaded from the vessel.
Certain prior art documents relate to this field. U.S. Pat. No. 6,281,797 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,734,796 relate to a tracking device that is associated with a cargo container. The cargo container is used for shipping of goods and materials and is placed into transportation vessels for shipment. The tracking device includes a GPS for receiving positioning information concerning the location of the cargo container and is adapted to transmit the location of the cargo container remotely. Sensor(s) are also operatively associated with the cargo container and tracking device to sense information concerning the surroundings of the cargo container. The tracking device receives this sensor information and deactivates the tracking device when the cargo container is either inside or in proximity to the aircraft. GPS and COMM are switched off by detection of a basic information received from a sensor, which may be sensitive to frequency, vibration, image, movement, reactivation by timer or GPS.
The “tracking device” shouldn't switch on sleep mode before the loading operation. These patents describe a way to switch off GPS and communications functions when the container is in the vicinity of a plane (to avoid electronic devices perturbations).
US 2007/0013481, entitled “Method and apparatus for battery power conservation in tags”, discloses a method and system for battery power conservation in tags. Shipping containers are tracked by affixing RFID tags, wherein the tags communicate with remote tracking device for location identification. Further, each battery has two operating modes, a first operating mode and a second operating mode wherein, the first operating mode consumes lesser power when compared to the second operating mode. The first and second operating modes correspond to the first range and second range of distances from the remote tracking device in increasing order respectively. Upon detecting an event of movement of the shipping container, the remote tracking device timestamps the event, stores the current location and accordingly sends a signal to indicate operation in the first operating mode if the current location falls under the first range of distance. Further, the tracking device periodically receives and sends tracking signals to the tag to compute the velocity of the container and multiplies it with time of travel at periodic intervals to determine the range of displacement of the shipping container from the remote tracking device. Upon detecting that the shipping container has moved from first range of distance to the second range of distance, the tracking device sends a signal instructing the tag to switch to second operating mode if needed. Also, the system can adaptively switch the tag from second operating mode to the first operating mode upon moving closer to the remote tracking device.
US 2002/0177476, entitled “Durable global asset-tracking device and a method of using the same”, discloses a method and system power efficient global asset tracking device. The tracking system comprises a processor module to which a location module, a communication module, a power module and plurality of distinct antenna are coupled with. The power module has two modes: active mode and a sleep mode. The plurality of distinct antennas is configured to receive GPS communication, or RF communication. In the event of the availability of the GPS satellite communication, the tracking system communicates with the GPS in order for the position to be tracked accurately by the location module. The location module further comprises a memory for storing the last known position. However, in the event of failure/unavailability of GPS communication, the communication module may communicate with available RF transceivers. In such an event, a sensor coupled to the location module may detect the motion of the asset being tracked in all the three dimensions and accordingly updates the memory in the location module about the current position. Further, upon reestablishing communication with GPS, the current exact location may be communicated to the tracker. In addition, power module may adaptively switch the tracking system to the sleep mode if the sensor doesn't detect any motion by the asset for a predetermined time.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,882,274, entitled “Energy conserving satellite tracking tag”, discloses a method and system for energy conserving satellite tracking tag used for ship movement tracking. The system comprises an RFID tag attached to shipping container which further has a power conditioner engaged to it. The power conditioner determines if the tag is powered by external power supply being derived from communication from any tracking system and continuously transmits its RFID tag information, collects location data from GPS and produces an output signal representative of its location for transmission to the tracking system. Also, the system selectively operates the tag in a battery mode, when the tag doesn't detect any communication from tracking system.
US 2005/0052281, entitled “Systems and methods for tracking the location of items within a controlled area” discloses a method and system for location tracking of a moving vehicle in a controlled area. The system comprises two or more RFID interrogators fitted to the moving vehicle, plurality of RFID tags fitted in the controlled area in forms of horizontal and vertical arrays, weight sensitive sensors, and a location authority configured to track the location of the moving vehicle. Further, the moving vehicle may contain item/articles for delivery. The RFID interrogators acquire RFID information from the nearest RFIDs located in the close proximity to the moving vehicle and transmit the location information data to the location authority. Further, the location authority computes the current location of the moving vehicle by referring to the ID of the tags and their corresponding predetermined coordinates. Thereafter, two or more consecutive location information data sent by the moving vehicle may be used by the location authority to determine the currently followed direction by the moving vehicle. Further, the location authority may store timestamps for each received location information data so as to compute the velocity of the moving vehicle. Also, the weight sensitive sensors may determine events like unloading/loading of items in the vehicle and communicate the same to the location authority for logging.